The National
Anna Zacharias
January 25. 2009 5:59PM UAE
RAS AL KHAIMAH
Snow covered the
Jebel Jais area for only the second time in recorded
history yesterday.
So rare was the
event that one lifelong resident said the local dialect had no word for it.
According to the RAK Government, temperatures on Jebel Jais
dropped to -3°C on Friday night. On Saturday, the area had reached 1°C.
Major Saeed Rashid al Yamahi,
a helicopter pilot and the manager of the Air Wing of RAK Police, said the snow
covered an area of five kilometres and was 10cm deep.
“The sight up there this morning was totally unbelievable, with the snow-capped
mountain and the entire area covered with fresh, dazzling white snow,” Major al
Yamahi said.
“The snowfall started at 3pm Friday, and heavy snowing began at 8pm and
continued till midnight, covering the entire area in a thick blanket of snow.
Much of the snow was still there even when we flew back from the mountain this
afternoon. It is still freezing cold up there and there are chances that it
might snow again tonight.”
Aisha al Hebsy, a woman in her 50s who has lived
in the mountains near Jebel Jais all her life, said
snowfall in the area was so unheard of the local dialect does not even have a
word for it. Hail is known as bared, which literally translates as cold.
“Twenty years ago we had lots of hail,” said Ms al Hebsy.
“Last night was like this. At four in the morning we came out and the ground
was white.”
Jebel Jais was dusted in snow on Dec 28, 2004, the
first snowfall in living memory for Ras al Khaimah residents.
“I had flown there in 2004 when it snowed, but this time it was much bigger
and the snowing lasted longer as well,” said Major al Yamahi.
At the base of the mountains, residents also reported severe hail on Friday
night. “We had hail. Last night was very cold, but there can only be snow on
Jebel Jais because it’s the tallest,” said Fatima al
Ali, 30, a resident of a village beneath the mountains.
In Ras al Khaimah City,
25km from Jebel Jais, sheet lightning and thunder
shook houses.
Main roads from Qusaidat to Nakheel
were still badly flooded on Saturday, while temperatures at the
M Varghese, an observer at the RAK Airport Meteorological Office, told of the
storms that hit the emirate on Friday night.
“We had thunderstorms with rain for more than 12 hours and we had around 18mm
rain,” Mr Varghese said. “The rain, along with the
cold easterly winds and low-lying clouds, could have bought the temperatures
further down on the mountains.”
Giorgio Alessio, a meteorologist at the
“The night might cool down in the desert below 10°C. There is variability in
the weather from year to year but it hasn’t shown a trend in getting colder or
getting warmer.”
The RAK Government plans to transform the 1,740m Jebel Jais
into the UAE’s first outdoor ski resort, using
Australian technology that will allow tourists to ski in temperatures up to
35°C.